CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
153 km from Muang Phônsavan to Muang Phônsavan, about 4 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Site 25, Site 28 and back through Site 25. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
If you only visit one cluster of jars, make it Site 1, which is the closest to Phonsavan and the largest, with more than three hundred stone vessels scattered across a broad grassy hill. Locals call it Thong Hai Hin. The biggest jar here is the star, a hulking block of sandstone taller than a man and said to weigh several tonnes, and it leans against a shoulder of the hill with a gentle air of fatigue. Around it, jars of all sizes lie in clusters, some standing, some fallen, some split along natural fractures. A few have rounded holes in their sides, perhaps from old damage or shelling.
Read the complete Site 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 1 is where the day begins. Next is Site 25.
Local legend has a cheerful explanation for the stone jars of Xieng Khouang. It tells of Khun Cheung, a legendary king who won a great victory and ordered the jars carved so that his people could brew lao-lao, the rice spirit, in huge quantities for the celebration. Archaeology prefers a funerary purpose, but the story says a lot about how people here like to see their past, and it is a good one to share over a glass of the real thing in the evening.
Read the complete Site 25 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 25 comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Site 28.
The Plain of Jars is one of the great archaeological puzzles of Southeast Asia: hundreds of carved stone jars, some taller than a person and weighing several tonnes, scattered across hillsides and meadows of the Xieng Khouang plateau in northern Laos.
Read the complete Site 28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Site 28. Next is back through Site 25.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 25 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site 25, late in the day. Next is Site 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Site 1. That is the ride.
Site 1 → Site 25 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site 25 → Site 28 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site 28 → back through Site 25 is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Site 25 → Site 1 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.